page_title: USS Fechteler (DD-870)
section_title: Before the Korean War
hierarchical_section_title: USS Fechteler (DD-870) / Service history / Before the Korean War
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Fechteler (DD-870) on 4 April 1946, four weeks after her commissioning. She is painted in wartime Camouflage Measure 22.
context_page_description: USS Fechteler (DD-870), named for Rear Admiral Augustus Francis Fechteler USN and/or his son Lieutenant Frank Casper Fechteler, was a Gearing-class destroyer laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Staten Island in New York on 12 April 1945, launched on 19 September 1945 by Miss Joan S. Fechteler, granddaughter of Rear Admiral Fechteler and niece of Lieutenant Fechteler, she was also the sponsor of the first USS Fechteler and commissioned on 2 March 1946.
  Fechteler operated with the Seventh Fleet in support of United Nations Forces during the Korean War, underwent conversion to a radar picket destroyer from 1 April to 1 December 1953, alternated operations along the west coast and in Hawaiian waters with deployments to the western Pacific with the Seventh Fleet, and participated in Sea Dragon and Market Time operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties and carried out naval gunfire support missions during the Vietnam War.
  Fechteler was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 September 1970 and sold for scrap on 28 June 1972.
context_section_description: Her home port was Norfolk, Virginia. Fechteler operated with carriers in the Virginia Capes area, and made a brief winter cruise to Argentia, Newfoundland. On 6 January 1947 she sailed from Norfolk for the west coast, and on 26 May sailed from San Diego for her first tour of duty in the Far East. Serving in the occupation, she called at several Chinese ports, as well as at Okinawa, Hong Kong, Yokosuka, and Guam. She returned to San Diego 22 January 1948, to resume west coast training operations.
caption: USS Fechteler in April 1946.
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